After Zhang Hongtao and the others left, Liu Yimin called Hu Laohu, the commander of the cavalry brigade, and first asked if there was any phenomenon of fallen horses in the long-distance march, and then said: "Tiger, I will provide you with a chance now to destroy a cavalry brigade of devils in one battle, I don't know if you dare?" ”

When Hu Laohu heard this, his eyes lit up, he took a step forward, and roared loudly: "Our brigade is well-trained and well-equipped, and there is absolutely no problem in destroying a devil cavalry brigade!" ”

Liu Yimin sat down with a tiger in his hand, took a branch in his hand, and said while drawing on the ground: "Tiger, come and see, the main force of the puppet army on the North Road has three divisions: the second division, the thirty-fifth division, and the forty-first division, as well as the third cavalry brigade and the main force of the North China Security Army, with a total of 70,000 troops, and the puppet army is estimated to have 20,000 to 30,000 people. During the day today, they captured the front line of Nanpi and Yanshan, and did not encounter the main force of our army. These troops are now very arrogant, and their attack speed is also very fast. If they advance like this again during the day tomorrow, they may cross the line of Ningjin, Leling, and Qingyun, and the day after tomorrow may continue to move south, attacking Wudi and Zhanhua to the east, Yangxin County and Huimin County to the south, and even directly attacking Binxian County to the south. Considering that the Second Division of the Yue Army is good at night raids and intersperses, and they have not encountered resistance from regular troops along the way, this speed may be faster. Although the army did not know that the main force of our army had crossed the river and arrived in Binxian, it was impossible to hide that the 10th Division of the South Road Army had been blocked by the cavalry battalion of the 6th Brigade and the 16th Regiment of the Jiao 6th Brigade and suffered heavy losses. Therefore, although the army on the North Road is huge and can divide its troops to attack Wudi and Zhanhua, their main attack arrows must be aimed at Huimin and Binxian, and they will quickly intersperse attacks, with the aim of reaching Binxian as soon as possible and cutting off the retreat route of the main force of our army on the Jilu border to Qinghe. Do you understand? ”

Hu Laohu said: "Commander, you look down on my old Hu, right?" With Xiucai, smoke can also smoke a little bit of bookishness. I've been following you for so long, but I don't have the ability anymore, and I know that the rapid attack arrows of the Yue army must be the 3rd Brigade and the 2nd Division of the Cavalry. Because these two troops are both Kwantung Army, just by listening to the number, you can know that the second division is the backbone of the army, with many tanks, armored vehicles, automobiles, and war horses, and only it can keep up with the attack speed of the third cavalry brigade. However, our army wants to encircle and annihilate the 10th Division of the Yue Army under this Binxian County, and absolutely cannot allow the 2nd Division and the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Yue Army to go south to Binxian County and flank our army. ”

Liu Yimin raised his head and glanced at Hu Laohu deeply, his eyes were full of appreciation: "Tiger, you are right, this is the truth." So how can we keep the attack arrows of the Yue Army from shooting at Binxian before we destroy the 10th Division? I thought about it, and there was only one way, which was to use the technique of four or two to pluck the arrow shot by the devil lightly, so that it would naturally turn and shoot eastward. However, this is easier said than done. You know, that's the heavy army group of the army, 100,000 people, if all of them attack, if one meter is lined up alone, it will be 100,000 meters, which is converted into our Huali, which is an infantry formation 200 miles wide! It's not easy! ”

Hu Laohu laughed: "Division commander, don't use the agitation method anymore, the cavalry brigade doesn't need you to mobilize, and the army can't line up in a long line." You say, how to fight? ”

Liu Yimin also smiled: "Okay, it's me who underestimated our steel heroic Hu Laohu." Thinking about the Xikou ambush back then, Hu Laohu dared to attack the Tao Guang Division of the Hunan Army with a cavalry company of 50 people, how could he be afraid of the heavy army group of the Yue Army? Okay, in this way, you can rest in concealment during the day, and quickly move to the side of the road at the junction of Huimin and Yangxin at night, hide your troops, and contact the local district squad and militia, so that they can help you familiarize yourself with the terrain. In the morning or afternoon of the day after tomorrow, the Third Cavalry Brigade of the Yue Army will inevitably pass by and capture the county seat of Huimin. You have to choose a strong terrain to set up an ambush there, lure the 3rd Cavalry Brigade with a small force, take advantage of our army's dense firepower, and kill this 3rd Cavalry Brigade for me. Then send a battalion to lead the devils to the territory of Zhanhua County, east of Yangxin, so that they think that this battalion is the main force on the Jilu border, so they will chase after them. Remember, after defeating the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Devils, you must not attack the 2nd Division, you are not their opponents, and you must bring the main force of the cavalry brigade back to me safely. The key to this battle is a quick victory, at least let the Devil's Third Cavalry Brigade know that the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army that has bitten a regiment, so that they will concentrate on pursuing our army with all their might, and will enter your ambush point, fight and retreat quickly. If you grasp the time well, our army will not take more than three hours to destroy the 10th Division. When I start fighting here, you can retreat to the east to lure the enemy's troops, let the devils march towards Binxian, and after destroying the 10th Division, I will use artillery fire to crush the troops on the north road of the devils, and let them go back to the northeast to rest. ”

Hu Laohu said: "Division commander, just come up with another Xikou ambush and eat the three divisions of the devils on the North Road, so that the Jilu border can be saved." ”

Liu Yimin shook his head: "The army is not the Hunan army, and Okamura Ningci is not Chen Guangzhong and the like, if we are too greedy, we will be surrounded by devils on the Jilu side." You must know that the army is three divisions, and if they stick to it seriously, we will not be able to gnaw it. As long as the two sides are at a stalemate, the heavy army group of the Chinese army will be quickly reinforced, the garrison divisions on the Jinpu line will also be reinforced, and even the four permanent divisions and regiments of the southern Hebei army will also be reinforced, and even the naval fleet of the Chinese army will rush to block the mouth of the Yellow River, and small gunboats can still go up the river. When the time comes, we won't be able to walk if we want to. Besides, we eliminated the 10th Division of the Yue Army this time, and we achieved the goal of the campaign, the Yue Army only has a total of 17 permanent divisions and regiments, and we will kill two of them one after another, and if we continue to fight like this, it will not be a few years before the elite troops of Xiao Yuben will be slowly consumed, and they will have no crazy capital. I guess they will try not to provoke us and block us instead, so that we will have a relatively stable space for development. In another year or two, when our army grows a little stronger, we will find them to fight a war of annihilation. ”

Hu Laohu smacked his lips: "It's a pity, if the first battle can wipe out those three divisions and regiments, how beautiful it would be!" ”

Liu Yimin threw the wooden stick in his hand and said: "If that's the case, it's not that the devil will destroy China in three months, but that we will defeat the devil in three months." Brother comrade, this kind of quick-win mentality is unacceptable, it will breed the idea of underestimating the enemy! ”

Hu Laohu touched his head and said embarrassedly: "Isn't this following you all the way to win the battle and be ambitious?" ”

As soon as Liu Yimin heard this, he said: "Tiger, you are a senior commander, but you must be vigilant. Not to mention such an elite Kwantung Army, even if it encounters the North China Security Army, it cannot underestimate the enemy. Since ancient times, whoever underestimates the enemy suffers. There are so many things that capsize in the gutter! You go back and think about my words, and tell Gao Yuan, Li Qing, Zhang Hongtao, and Lei Ming on the way, and each of you will write a thought and experience, and I will see if you can correctly understand why our army can win the war! ”

When Hu Laohu heard this, he said the wrong sentence and invited a few people to write for inspection, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to say it anymore, so he quickly saluted and left.

Liu Yimin shouted to him and asked him to take all the cavalry battalions of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Brigades with him, and to bring more grenadiers, light machine guns, mines, and explosives packages to the logistics, and to use firepower to destroy the Third Cavalry Brigade of the Devils.

After Hu Laohu left, Liu Yimin fell asleep.

On the afternoon of 11 June, Liu Yimin convened an operational meeting to make specific arrangements for the battle to encircle and annihilate the 10 th Division.

At the meeting, Liu Yimin summed up the Luzhong Campaign and proposed: "Since the eastward advance, great military victories have been achieved, and the Eighth Division of the Chinese Army, the Third Brigade, the Sixth Brigade, and the Tenth Brigade of the Reading Force have been wiped out, as well as the puppet Shandong Autonomous Coalition Army, Zhang Buyun, and Liu Guitang, and the situation in Shandong has basically been opened. However, there was a negative factor behind the victory, that is, it caused a large-scale retaliation by the Japanese army. Directing the attack of the Yue army to the Eighth Route Army may lead to a significant reduction in the base area and excessive sacrifice of troops. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Yimin's words changed and said earnestly: "Why did we launch the Luzhong Campaign? Many comrades may not be able to see this issue clearly, and I will tell them about it here. The fundamental reason for launching the Luzhong Campaign was to mobilize the army and save the situation on the battlefield in eastern Henan. You can think about it, [***] mobilized more than 100,000 main forces on the front line of Lanfeng in eastern Henan to form an attack corps, the purpose is to encircle and annihilate the 14th Division of Tufeiyuan, which is a lone army running for thousands of miles, because the 14th Division is temporarily equipped with a heavy artillery brigade, and it is a mechanized unit, [***] cannot catch up or stop, and the troops suffer heavy casualties. At this time, there was a heavy army group of the Yue Army that came from Xuzhou in the east, and the 27th Division of the Yue Army secretly went south from the Guantai ferry in the north, and the collapse of the [***] front in eastern Henan was just around the corner. Once the front collapsed, the Yue army would take advantage of the situation to capture Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Luoyang. He will also take advantage of the situation to go south, launch the Battle of Wuhan, and cooperate with the army that is moving north along the river to capture Wuhan. If such a situation arises, the overall situation of our War of Resistance will be in danger, because the factories and equipment that retreated to Wuhan will not have time to transfer to the rear, and it will be difficult to supply weapons, ammunition and logistics in the future. At this time, the only way for Chiang Kai-shek to ensure western Henan and block the momentum of the attack of the Yue army was to dig up the Yellow River and borrow the water of the Yellow River to stop the Yue army. Let's think about it, how many people will die in the entire Henan Plain, and how many families will have to flee the famine and leave for food? I am not alarmist, in fact, the German advisers had already drawn up a plan for Chiang Kai-shek to dig the Yellow River to block the enemy, and the First Theater had already submitted a report to Chiang Kai-shek demanding that the Yellow River be opened, and Chiang Kai-shek had already ordered it to be carried out. Our investigators of the Southwest Lu Garrison Brigade reported that the [***] unit had sent engineers to secretly plant explosives on the embankment of the Yellow River. Of course, this is a military secret, don't say that the Yellow River was not picked up in the end, even if it was picked, it would not be admitted, and [***] and the army would accuse each other of picking it up. At this very critical time, our army struck a thunderous blow and wiped out the Eighth Division of the Yue Army, saved eastern Henan, and more importantly, saved millions or even tens of millions of people in Henan. Comrades, the greatness of the Luzhong campaign is here. Compared with this, what is the heavy siege of the army? What is the possibility of losing the Jilu border base area? ”

The cadres, including Luo Ronghuan and Cai Zhong, heard for the first time that the Luzhong Campaign was fought to save the lives of the people of Henan, and they applauded excitedly and desperately, and the audience applauded thunderously.

Liu Yimin waved his hand, wanting to stop the applause of the cadres. Unexpectedly, with his wave of his hand, the applause of the cadres became even louder.

Liu Yimin had a smile on his face, but his heart was overturned, he knew that telling the truth that did not happen in the end would give the whole army a sense of pride in saving the nation and saving the peril, and although the next struggle would be very difficult, as long as they agreed to the idea, everyone would have a deeper understanding of the fact that the army was besieging with heavy troops, and they would not have other ideas, such as blaming the war for being too big and causing a great negative effect.

After the applause of the cadres completely subsided, Liu Yimin continued: "This time, the army mobilized 700,000 troops to besiege our base area, which seems to be violent, but in fact it is not terrible. I have always stressed that our army does not care about the gains or losses of one city or one place in combat, and pays attention to eliminating the vital forces of the army. Why? Let's think about it, if our army sticks to the city, it will become a [***] way of fighting, turning the troops into the target of the army's heavy firepower, not to mention the big losses, the city will not be able to hold it. If we destroy the devil's living force, what if he occupies the chassis? The army will have to divide its forces into defense and turn field divisions into local garrisons. When the time comes, our army can launch a counterattack at any time and regain the lost territory! Besides, if the army had not occupied the lines of communication, what would we eat and wear? The Jinpu Line, Pinghan Line, and Jiaoji Line are not only the transportation lines and lifelines of the army, but also the supply lines of our Eighth Route Army. Our army still points to these railways to eat canned beef, rice and white noodles. Think about it, isn't that the reason? ”

The cadres applauded warmly again.

Liu Yimin's gaze swept over the faces of the cadres one by one, and only after the applause subsided did he continue: "I sent a telegram to the chairman and the boss last time, expounding the fundamental strategy of our army to defeat the encirclement and suppression of the devils, that is, to show the enemy to be weak, the enemy to advance and advance, they want to come to our base area, we will go to their rear. Everything is based on the principle of promoting the division of troops and division of troops, and the principle of creating fighters that can be broken by us. In other words, the army fought in central Hebei, southern Hebei, Hebei, Lubian, and Luxi in order to cover their most fundamental battle plan, that is, to pounce on Shandong and completely eliminate the main force of our instructors. In this case, our army in central Hebei, southern Hebei, and Hebei and Shandong can be transferred to tunnel fortifications, and after the large army has passed, it will specially hit the devil's back. It's very fat in one bite, it is a gun, cannon and delicious food, and a lot of supplies can be captured in a battle. Hum! The little devil's heart is not small, and he still wants to eat a fat man in one bite! He didn't ask me who Liu Yimin was, what did the hero's mentor do, it has always been us who take advantage of the enemy and suffer, where is their turn to destroy us? No, he's going to come to fight our Jilubian, okay, come on, Lao Tzu welcomes it very much. If he didn't come to fight Jilubian, how could he transfer the 10th Division guarding Xuzhou here? How could the 10th Division be allowed to undertake the task of attacking the southern road of the Jilu border alone? That's what we want. By tomorrow evening, another permanent division of the Chinese army, that is, the arrogant and imperative 10th Division, will be wiped out and will return to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to enjoy his own memorials. ”

The cadres burst into laughter, and the atmosphere at the meeting was warm and cheerful, and there was no dreary situation at all when the enemy's soldiers pressed the border.

It was only at this time that Liu Yimin began to make combat deployments. 1. The cavalry brigade was used as the northern front to block and decoy the enemy's troops, and the operational objective was to destroy the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Yue Army, stimulate the Yue army on the northern route, and lead them to attack and advance in the northeast direction of Binxian. If the devil is not fooled, the cavalry brigade has the task of blocking the enemy from moving south, and it must be guaranteed that the main force of the northern front will not reach the Binxian battlefield before the 10th division of the army is destroyed. 2. The Sixth Brigade of the Sixth Brigade was stationed in Binxian County with two regiments, under the command of Chief of Staff He Mingming, to strengthen the fortifications and attract all the main forces of the 10th Division to the city of Binxian with a resolute and stubborn posture, and the Flying Thunder Artillery Regiment of the Divisional Artillery Brigade was under the command of He Mingming. The remaining five regiments formed a tail-blocking group, commanded by Zhang Hongtao and Fu Zhuting, and were covertly deployed on the west bank of the Tuxiao River, 40 miles away from Binxian, and immediately set up a blocking position after the passage of the 10th Division of the Chinese Army to prevent the main force of the devils from turning around and escaping. If the main forces of the devils all rush to Binxian County, the group can follow the enemy's advance and establish a blocking line two kilometers away from the enemy's rearguard. 3. The 1st Brigade, the 3rd Brigade, and the Heavy Machine Gun Regiment were on standby in concealment in the north of Binxian County and served as assault groups. Fourth, the command of the Fourth Brigade of the Fourth Brigade was to deploy the baggage regiment in the east of Binxian County. If the pressure in Binxian County is too great and the general attack has to start before dark, the air defense brigade must resolutely meet the devil's planes, cover the battlefield as much as possible, and focus on covering the artillery positions. 6. All artillery units should be under the unified command of the artillery headquarters, and the first wave of strikes should completely destroy the army's will to resist, and then strike point by point, laying the foundation for the infantry assault of the whole army. 7. After the 10th Division was wiped out, the baggage regiment was responsible for cleaning up the battlefield, and the main force quickly withdrew from the battlefield, with the 1st Brigade leading the 6th Brigade on the left and the 3rd Brigade leading the 4th Brigade on the right, forming a pincer offensive, with the artillery brigade, air defense brigade, heavy machine gun regiment, and guard regiment in the center to meet the troops on the northern front of the Chinese army and strive to defeat them in one fell swoop. After the battle, all the main forces withdrew across the Yellow River to recuperate, and the Sixth Brigade was taught to leave one regiment in the Hebei-Shandong border area to carry out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines.

(To be continued)